Free Republic

A grainy and gruesome photo has fueled speculation that the infamous leader of the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram is dead, even as the African nation's army presses fighters in the northern territory and the fate of hundreds of hostages hangs in the balance. The military in neighboring Cameroon claims to have killed Abubakar Shekau, the warlord seen earlier this year in a monstrous video vowing to sell nearly 300 kidnapped schoolgirls, and even released a photo purportedly of his corpse. Nigerian security forces are trying to authenticate the report, and officials in the U.S., which has aided Nigeria's hunt...

20 September 2014 Boko Haram Kills 'Dozens' In Attack On Nigerian Market Boko Haram militants have attacked a rural market in the north-east Nigerian town of Mainok, killing dozens of people, officials and witnesses say. Gunmen shot at traders and customers as they raided the busy market for food supplies on Friday. The number of casualties is not yet clear, with some reports suggesting as many as 30 people were killed. Boko Haram has taken control of a series of towns and villages in north-eastern Nigeria in recent weeks. Authorities have struggled to defeat the militant Islamist group, which has...

the leader of the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram has established the world's second Islamic "caliphate" this summer and is seeking to cement his bloody rule on a territory that is now roughly the size of west Virginia. While much of the world has been focused on the brutal reign of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the forces of Boko haram have been racking up victories in northern Nigeria and have been violently imposing an equally harsh version of Islamic law on approximately 3 million civilians - including beheadings, forced marriages and the forced induction of children into its military...

A month after declaring an Islamic state-like caliphate in Northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram militants have reportedly surrounded the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where residents expect an attack on what could be the group's largest and most symbolic seizure yet. ...

Terror group ISIS, which is active in Iraq and Syria, is reportedly strengthening its ties with Boko Haram in Nigeria, offering the militants advice on how to build an African caliphate. "Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a large area of its territory reminiscent of ISIS's lightning advances in Iraq," The Nigeria Security Network warned. The Independent noted that intelligence agencies have been raising concern that what initially looked like symbolic links between ISIS and Boko Haram have now developed "into a practical relationship" with the former offering advice on strategy and tactics....

<p>YOLA, Nigeria (AP) - ...Boko Haram, has seized more towns along Nigeria's northeastern border with Cameroon and is adopting a strategy of encouraging civilians to stay, witnesses said Sunday, as the militants pursue their new aim to carve out an "Islamic caliphate" under their black and white flag.</p>

Nigeria launched new national identification cards this week, and President Goodluck Jonathan received the first card. Each card contains biometric information and has the capability to receive electronic payments. The first phase of the collaborative effort between MasterCard and the Nigerian government will issue cards to 13 million Nigerians. The government plans to use the cards to electronically deliver salaries and pensions to reduce mismanagement of government payments. Some Nigerians are not excited about the identification cards. The Premium Times reported on citizen’s concerns about the collection of biometric information. Nigerians also reported distrust about the collaboration between MasterCard and...

Who is Vernice Guthrie, and where was she at 11 a.m. West Africa Time on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011? On that day, terrorist group Boko Haram carried out a suicide bombing at the main UN building in Abuja, Nigeria, killing 24 persons and injuring more than 100. Since then Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and other lawmakers have three times during hearings asked State Department officials whether Americans were in that building. Three times those officials have hedged. Now, Boko Haram’s rise has led to the deaths of thousands of Nigerians, the destruction of hundreds of churches, and the kidnapping this...

Breaking News U.S. Military Conducts Operation In Somalia By Barbara Starr September 1, 2014 (CNN) -- U.S. military forces conducted an operation Monday against the Al-Shabaab network in Somalia, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said. "We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," he said.

Accuses Borno govt, military of lying to the public The Senator representing Borno Central at the National Assembly, Ahmed Zannah, has challenged both the Borno state government and military authority to take the media to Bama to cross check their claims that the town has not be captured by the Boko Haram insurgents. The senator in a telephone chat on Wednesday afternoon with our correspondent said: "As I am speaking to you Bama has been captured and the insurgents on the prowling for any male, killing at will." He added , "Everyone is a target as long as you are...

Boko Haram militants seized a police academy in Gwoza, Nigeria, storming the school in armored tanks taken from Nigerian soldiers. A local police spokesman confirmed the attack on the Liman Kara police college. ... An armored tank, parked at the entrance to the academy, was blown up by Boko Haram members to gain entrance.

A U.S. congressman who led a delegation to Nigeria to investigate Boko Haram in June has accused the Obama administration of withholding key information that could help the Nigerian military fight the Islamic terrorist group, which has all but taken over the northern part of the country. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-TX, suggests a key reason is the administration’s opposition to Nigerian “social policy.” In the first six months of this year alone, Boko Haram has killed more than 2,000 civilians, and in April, the group kidnapped hundreds of young girls from a school in Chibok with the intention of selling...

Hillary Clinton called President Barack Obama on Tuesday to “make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him” when she recently discussed her views on foreign policy in an interview with The Atlantic, according to a statement from a Clinton spokesman. The statement comes amid tension between the Clinton and Obama camps in the wake of the interview. It also comes as Obama and Clinton, his former secretary of state, are due to cross paths at a social gathering Wednesday night in Martha’s Vineyard. In the interview, Clinton dismissed the Obama administration’s self-described foreign policy...

Muslims in Nigeria took a 100 Christians and murdered all of them in the most horrific ways, burning them alive, slitting their throats, hacking them to death, and shooting them. They also burned down several churches. As one report says: The shooting, fire-bombing and slashing of men, women and children in Gwoza, Borno state, as initially the military reportedly fled before an insurgent force backed by international terrorist groups, began at about 4 a.m., producing eyewitness assertions that Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, had taken control of the town of more than 276,000 people....

. August 8, 2014 Newt Gingrich : ISIS, Hamas, and Boko Haram ===================================================== Grim, unyielding and violent reality is beginning to confront the American political establishment with facts from which it cannot hide. For 35 years, since Iranians seized the American Embassy on November 4, 1979, and kept the Americans in it as hostages, the United States has been at war with radical Islamists. They knew it. We hid from it. Year after year since then, radical Islamists have grown more militant, more sophisticated and more numerous. Now, in an arc of terror from Boko Haram in Nigeria through Hamas...

. August 6, 2014 Newt Gingrich : Obama, Buchanan, and Baldwin -- The Cost of Rejecting Reality ===================================================== President Obama is in serious danger of joining a select group of disastrous leaders who put their people and their country in desperate circumstances that cost lives and risked ruinous defeat. Almost everywhere you look around the world, the situation is worse for the United States and worse for freedom than when President Obama took office—in many cases catastrophically so. There isn’t much sign that he recognizes this or is particularly concerned. Iraq is the most obvious (and potentially most dangerous) example....

"The World Remains Silent; It Is As If We Had Been Swallowed Up by The Night." Egypt's Maspero massacre—where the military killed dozens of Christians protesting the destruction of their churches—dominates October's persecution headlines. Facts and details concerning the military's "crimes against humanity" are documented in this report, and include videos of armored-vehicles running over civilians, a catalog of lies and deceitful tactics employed by Egypt's rulers and state media, and other matters overlooked by the West. More damning evidence continues to emerge: not only did Egypt's military plan to massacre Christians to teach them a "lesson" never to...

For 35 years, since Iranians seized the American Embassy on November 4, 1979, and kept the Americans in it as hostages, the United States has been at war with radical Islamists. They knew it. We hid from it. Now, in an arc of terror from Boko Haram in Nigeria through Hamas in Gaza to ISIS in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, there is a clear wave of vicious religious warfare being waged against civilization by fanatics who openly promise and engage in genocidal killing. ISIS has made its murderous intentions painfully clear. It has proven in town after town that it...

After weeks of sacking villages and destroying church buildings around Nigeria’s northeastern town of Gwoza, Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on Wednesday (Aug. 6) killed an estimated 100 people in the predominantly Christian town, sources said. The shooting, fire-bombing and slashing of men, women and children in Gwoza, Borno state, as initially the military reportedly fled before an insurgent force backed by international terrorist groups, began at about 4 a.m., producing eyewitness assertions that Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, had taken control of the town of more than 276,000 people. “You have been fleeing...

Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group in Nigeria, and other groups have killed 1,631 Christians in Nigeria in the first six months of 2014—91 percent of last year’s total number of Christians killed, according to in the country in all of last year, according to the human rights group Jubilee Campaign. Last year 1,783 Nigerian Christians were killed, according to Jubilee Campaign. …